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Debates on e-cigarettes often focus on the potential harms or benefits of vaping versus smoking. Dr Yvette van der Eijk, Senior Research Fellow, and Assistant Professor Lee Jeong Kyu are more concerned about the industry’s preying on youth. As e-cigarettes are newly developed products, it is hard to assess their harms and make fair conclusions about theirRead more

The government recently passed the bill for standardised packaging for all tobacco products sold in Singapore. From next year, all tobacco packs will be a drab brown colour, with all logos, colours and branding elements removed, and graphic health warnings covering 70 per cent of the pack surface. Packaging is an important marketing tool, especially in

In response to the recent HIV registry data leak, Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang, Programme Leader (Infectious Diseases), and Mr Rayner Tan, PhD student and researcher on HIV, address the dated views that many Singaporeans have of the disease. While there has been significant advances in medical science and treatment of HIV, the same cannot be

Cutting down on white rice may not in itself lower one’s risk of getting diabetes. What matters more is what the rice is substituted with and the overall quality of a person’s diet. These were presented in two new studies that used data from the Singapore Chinese Health Study (SCHS) and were co-authored by Professor Rob

What is the importance of health technology assessment (HTA) in health decision making? What are the processes and methods adopted by the various HTA entities in Singapore and the region? How has the role of HTA evolved in the context of universal health coverage (UHC)? These were some of the questions covered at the ‘Health

Malnutrition is a problem often perceived to be linked to food shortages, but many people do not realise that it can also be caused by excessive consumption of empty calories, such as from sugar. Singapore has already adopted a range of measures when it comes to managing sugar consumption, including prohibiting the sale of beverages

Based on last year’s National Nutrition Survey by the Health Promotion Board, Singaporeans take an average of 60g of sugar a day, which is higher than the 50g limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). High-sugar food and drinks are getting cheaper and becoming more easily available, while portion sizes are getting bigger and

Traditionally, workplace wellbeing focused on occupational safety and health, because concerns about it arose during a time where most jobs were blue-collar and many workplaces were full of hazards. However, workplaces have evolved and the greatest hazards for many are no longer hearing loss or accidents caused by machines, but the onset of chronic diseases

Southeast Asians make up about 20 per cent of the 450 million people living with diabetes globally, with many of them living in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Experts have blamed this on a prevalence of processed and unhealthy food, a lack of early intervention for patients and misinformation — for a long time, diabetes was

In recent years, Singapore has ramped up its measures to drive down the smoking rate, including banning point-of-sale display, increasing excise taxes and prices, banning alternative tobacco products, and proposing standardised packaging for all tobacco products. Joining this slew of measures with effect from 1 January 2019 are the country’s first precinct-wide smoking ban along